It's That Time of Year Again

The end, that is. Time for retrospectives and soft-focus follow-up reports on the "news" stories of 2002. I think I'll avoid the television just to maintain my good cheer.

Television was very nice to me Buffy-wise this weekend, though. At 2 am on Sunday, I caught one of my all time favorite episodes, "Hush," from Season Four. Fairy tale monsters called The Gentlemen steal the voices of the people of Sunnydale, then visit them at night to cut out their hearts. Sounds basic, but the cast does an amazing job of expressing being speechless. In the beginning of the episode, you (in hindsight) see how talking has been burdensome for our Scooby gang. After the voices are stolen, Riley and Buffy finally kiss because talking isn't in the way, Xander shows his love for Anya, which he can't express verbally, Willow bonds with the stutter-prone Tara through silent magic, and Giles gets a much needed rest from the yammering of the Scoobies( + Spike). My favorite scene has Giles explaining The Gentlemen with an overhead projector and hand-drawn transparencies. He plays Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" in the background, which is one of my favorite classical pieces and perfectly fitting for the "presentation." Some of the misunderstandings of non-verbal communication are hilarious. Plus, Giles' drawings are too cute. The final battle scene, wherein Buffy gets her voice back and screams to kill The Gentlemen is intense. This was Emmy-worthy stuff, but did anyone care?

Sunday afternoon UPN ran the final episode of Season Five ("The Gift"), the last season on the WB, what I think of as the last season of the "real" Buffy. It opens with the best "previously" segment ever. Every time I see it, I just stare, mouth agape. Giles' voice says, "Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and they show scenes from the beginning of the show, faster and faster, until it's a flickering stream of images, everything, Oz, Riley, Angel, Spike, Dru, the Master, Adam, the Mayor, Faith, Giles in a sombrero, Buffy kicking butt, Willow and magic, Miss Calendar, just everything. It's so cool. I know I have it on tape somewhere. The rest of the episode is actually pretty good, too, for Season Five. The return of Joel Grey; Giles kills Ben after Buffy stomps Glory using the Dagon sphere and the troll hammer (suggested by Anya) and a wrecking ball wielded by Xander ("And the glorified bricklayer picks up a spare."); the Buffybot gives an encore performance; Willow retrieves Tara's mind from Glory and they combine magic to repel the flunkies from the tower; Spike does his best to protect Dawn; and Buffy sacrifices herself to save both Dawn and the world, because she realizes that this is what the spirit guide meant when she said, "Death is your gift." Sure, it makes no sense to you, but to a long time watcher, all of these pieces are important. I'm just happy I got to see two Joss directed episodes within 15 hours. I may be ready to start back on the first season now, since Season Seven is bringing me just slightly more enjoyment than Season Six (aka "The Season of Suckiness"). I think I could even watch Seasons Four and Five with pleasure after the last season and a half of mucking around on UPN. Poor SMG.